That, I don't know. I'm such a tease. She tried to make me help her though, but cooking is not my thing. So, sorry I can't give you the details. You could try looking it up or maybe I'll ask her when I see it again.

I absolutely love sushi but I don't always like to go out to eat and sometimes I just really crave the stuff. So I'm wondering how easy it is to make sushi that tastes pretty decent. I'm not looking for restaurant quality, I just want to be able to whip up some sushi at home for times

I make sushi all the time. If you have access to a Japanese supermarket, then it's much easier to find some of the ingredients, but I've noticed that some Western supermarkets stock sushi rice (Tesco's own brand works quite well, in my experience).

Here's what you need:

Tatami (sushi rolling) mat
Nori (Japanese dried seaweed – comes in sheets)
Mirin (Japanese white rice vinegar)
Sushi rice
A straight edged paring knife (the one I use has about a 4 inch long blade)
A really big wooden chopping board - make sure it's wide enough to lie the nori flat on it
2 small bowls - one for soy sauce [and wasabi, if you like it] and one for water

Toppings I like:
– Salmon (if you can't get the kind used for sushi [it's cut in a very different way than a salmon fillet, for example], then use smoked salmon instead. If you're using frozen smoked salmon, allow it to defrost in the refrigerator for a couple of hours before you start the process. Microwaving salmon at any power level doesn't work. Trust me.
– Prawns/shrimp
– Avocado
– Spinach (I use defrosted frozen spinach, but if you use fresh, make sure to cook it first until it wilts. Then let it cool down before you put it in the sushi rolls).

1. Boil the sushi rice in a saucepan with fairly high sides according to the package instructions. The sushi rice packages I've used say to use 1 3/4 cups rice with 200ml of water, but I usually use the recommended rice measurement and then add just enough water to cover the rice. Once you've reached boiling, turn the heat down to low and let it simmer for about 20 minutes [the package may be slightly different as every manufacturer is different]

2. Once the rice has cooked, take it off the heat and add the mirin according to taste. Then cover the saucepan and let it sit for ten minutes. This is more important than it sounds. If you need to defrost any of your seafood or vegetables, now would be a good time to do so.

3. Place the tatami mat on the chopping board. Lie the nori shiny side down on the tatami mat. Add enough rice to cover about 2/3 of the nori, leaving the upper third rice free. Place your chosen fillings just off centre on top of the rice.

4. Grab the bottom section of the tatami mat and with medium pressure, start rolling the nori/rice/toppings towards you. I find the best way to do this is to push the mat inside itself (think of a Swiss roll). Keep rolling until you've made a cylinder with the nori, then press firmly for a few seconds, taking care not to crush the nori (it's very fragile).

5. Once your sushi cylinder has been assembled, remove from the tatami mat and dip the pointed end of the knife in the water. Try to get as much of the blade wet as possible. This will make cutting the sushi much easier.

6. To cut the sushi, take the moistened knife, and depending on how sharp your knife is, stick it point side down (vertically) into the sushi. Then turn the knife so it's perpendicular to the sushi and cut it into 1 inch pieces using what I can only describe as a sawing motion. Please don't be discouraged if you have a few sushi casualties along the way. This takes a lot of practise.

7. Dip your sushi into the soy sauce [and wasabi, if you like it] and enjoy.